HarrySpellsnatcher
9k views3 years ago
Commander
Size: 100Salt sum: 42.03
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Artifact
Artifact
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Creature
Dimir House Guard
Fear (This creature can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures.)
Sacrifice a creature: Regenerate this creature.
Transmute (, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same mana value as this card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. Transmute only as a sorcery.)
Sacrifice a creature: Regenerate this creature.
Transmute (, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same mana value as this card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. Transmute only as a sorcery.)
Creature - Skeleton
Flamekin Herald
Commander spells you cast have cascade. (Whenever you cast a commander, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card with lesser mana value. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
Creature - Wizard Elemental
Jaxis, the Troublemaker
, , Discard a card: Create a token that's a copy of another target creature you control. It gains haste and "When this token dies, draw a card." Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step. Activate only as a sorcery.
Blitz (If you cast this spell for its blitz cost, it gains haste and "When this creature dies, draw a card." Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.)
Blitz (If you cast this spell for its blitz cost, it gains haste and "When this creature dies, draw a card." Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.)
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior
Purphoros, God of the Forge
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to red is less than five, Purphoros isn't a creature.
Whenever another creature you control enters, Purphoros deals 2 damage to each opponent.
: Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn.
As long as your devotion to red is less than five, Purphoros isn't a creature.
Whenever another creature you control enters, Purphoros deals 2 damage to each opponent.
: Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn.
Legendary Creature Enchantment - God
Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
Horsemanship (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.)
Sacrifice Xiahou Dun: Return target black card from your graveyard to your hand. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.
Sacrifice Xiahou Dun: Return target black card from your graveyard to your hand. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
Protection from Humans
Pay 1 life, Sacrifice another creature: Put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature and draw a card.
, Discard a card: Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
Pay 1 life, Sacrifice another creature: Put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature and draw a card.
, Discard a card: Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric
Creature
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Enchantment
Underworld Breach
Each nonland card in your graveyard has escape. The escape cost is equal to the card's mana cost plus exile three other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast cards from your graveyard for their escape cost.)
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice this enchantment.
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice this enchantment.
Enchantment
Enchantment
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Instant
Lethal Scheme
Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for or one mana of that creature's color.)
Destroy target creature or planeswalker. Each creature that convoked this spell connives. (Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.)
Destroy target creature or planeswalker. Each creature that convoked this spell connives. (Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.)
Instant
Pile On
Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for or one mana of that creature's color.)
Destroy target creature or planeswalker. Surveil 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
Destroy target creature or planeswalker. Surveil 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
Instant
Tibalt's Trickery
Counter target spell. Choose 1, 2, or 3 at random. Its controller mills that many cards, then exiles cards from the top of their library until they exile a nonland card with a different name than that spell. They may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Then they put the exiled cards on the bottom of their library in a random order.
Instant
Wild Magic Surge
Destroy target permanent an opponent controls. Its controller reveals cards from the top of their library until they reveal a permanent card that shares a card type with that permanent. They put that card onto the battlefield and the rest on the bottom of their library in a random order.
Instant
Instant
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Land
Path of Ancestry
This land enters tapped.
: Add one mana of any color in your commander's color identity. When that mana is spent to cast a creature spell that shares a creature type with your commander, scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom.)
: Add one mana of any color in your commander's color identity. When that mana is spent to cast a creature spell that shares a creature type with your commander, scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom.)
Land
Land
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Sorcery
Sorcery
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Deck Info
Deck stats
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Deck extras (0)
Description
{"ops":[{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Rakdos is in an awkward spot for Commander/EDH. While it has a selection of fun, strong commanders that revolve around a sacrifice theme, they’re just a bit overshadowed by other color combinations and commanders. "},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Red is the “red-headed stepchild” of the format, with inconsistent options for card advantage and only a handful of roundabout answers to enchantments. Black has always been a popular color, but either on its own, propelled by the raw power of Cabal Coffers and an excessive amount of tutors, or with a color to sure up its weaknesses, like white or green."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Teysa Karlov gives you huge bonuses for sacrificing your creatures. Meren of Clan Nel Toth just reanimates for free. For Rakdos, Juri, Master of the Revue and Judith, the Scourge Diva just can’t compare. So what does an innocuous common originating from Dominaria have to offer?"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Well, a ton of unique properties and a huge textbox that offers a dozen different angles that excels Rakdos past “aristocrats-but-worse” and into its own mixture of combo, aristocrats and value engines."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Why Garna?"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Garna has a ton of text on her, and oddly every ability is unique. Let’s start from top to bottom"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Flash"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"This isn’t really a black or a red ability, so it seems like a bit of an oddity here. However, I’ll take it, because it makes Garna incredibly hard to interact with."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"In both of her Limited formats (Dominaria and Ultimate Masters), a usual play pattern with Garna went something like this:"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"The opponent swings out with a bunch of creatures."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"You make a bunch of blocks, some of which are decent trades and others a bit sketchy."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Afterwards, you flash in Garna, buy back your creatures and suddenly any trades you made look awesome."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"There was of course plenty of other play with Garna. Sometimes you flash her in to give a few of your creatures next turn haste as a surprise and sometimes she’s just a fancy Ambush Viper."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"In Commander, these aren’t typical play patterns though, but this is still an option. Sometimes you save a chunk of your life and bin a few idiots and get them back with Garna. Mostly though, you’re setting up value turns, and Garna’s flash lets you adapt what you want to do on the fly or squeeze value in areas where your opponents have their pants down."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"If there’s a blue player at the table, you can wait for them to tap out to counter someone else’s spell, then flash in Garna and get a ton of value. If you need to hold up some blockers, represent them and then sac them if no one dares attack you."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Awkwardly sacrificing your board on your turn to get a few cards and then leaving yourself tapped out and defenseless is bumbling. Garna lets you extract value you on your terms - and your opponents’ turns."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"The ETB"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"This ability is simply absurd and it has a ton of nuance. To truly appreciate it, I think Garna’s ability needs to be broken down even further. The two big notes here are:"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"The ability specifies "},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","bold":true},"insert":"anywhere"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":". "},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"The ability does not say “"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","bold":true},"insert":"other"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":" creatures.”"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Combine these together and you have one of the most adaptive and multifaceted card advantage engines in Rakdos."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"First, the “anywhere” part. If there’s one thing I was taught, it was never to be broad. If you say that “all EDH players like Rakdos,” then you’re 100 percent wrong. If you say “a lot of EDH players like Rakdos,” you’re still probably wrong but it’s not as easily debunked."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Anywhere is a broad term. On the surface, “anywhere” means “battlefield.” Sacrificing a bunch of creatures and returning them with Garna is what she was made for. Most of the time, you’ll play a bunch of value creatures, sacrifice them, play Garna and get them all back. That’s some delicious value, but you can do better."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"What about milling yourself? Suddenly milling three creatures off an Altar of Dementia became a draw three."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"What about discard? Pitching some creatures to a Faithless Looting buying them back makes Ancestral Recall look a bit small-minded. Looking even deeper, what about constantly using Tortured Existence to rebuy your whole graveyard? Or discarding Faerie Macabre for some free, instant speed and difficult to interact with graveyard hate?"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"This goes even deeper though. What if you have a bunch of mana, cast a scary card like Kokusho, the Evening Star, and your opponent counters it. Bummer, right? Not really. Garna gets that back too. Kokusho is a creature card that went into your graveyard from a place called anywhere."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"What if you have a Birgi, God of Storytelling on Harnfel, Horn of Bounty? Your opponent blows it up because it’s a bit absurd, especially when you’re pitching creature cards to rebuy them with Garna. Well, Birgi is still a creature card that went into a graveyard from anywhere, even if she was chilling as a horn, so you get that back too."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"All in all, this gives the deck a lot of different angles of play. You can generate tons of card advantage"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"This part of the ability is crazy, but the part that really gave me an epiphany was that Garna can rebuy herself. Throughout this guide, I’ll be referring to the “Garna loop,” which is cycling value with Garna that’s basically constantly repeatable. All you need to do is sacrifice Garna with her trigger on the stack and she’ll return herself to your hand."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Combine these elements together and what do you get? An ability that’s able to generate value and do it constantly. Garna is not a one-night stand, she’s wifey material. "},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Other creatures you control have haste"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"You’d think this deck would be more aggressive with a commander that makes all your creatures go fast, but funny enough, I rarely (if ever) attack. That doesn’t make this ability irrelevant though; in fact, it’s a crucial part to making a lot of strong cards work."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Typically, creatures with tap abilities are often just slow and clunky. EDH is the “board wipe format,” where some games devolve into three or four boardwipes getting cast and everyone just awkwardly staring at a limited pool of resources and trying to scrape whatever’s left at the bottom of a barrel. Playing a creature that taps right into a boardwipe is basically like paying mana to Thoughtseize yourself. Well, you won’t be losing two life literally, but metaphorically you’ll be losing part of your soul."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"This deck isn’t “tap abilities tribal.” In fact, it only has two creatures that tap, but both have potent abilities. I’ll get into them later on, but it’s worth pointing out that the “haste” text isn’t just flavor text. Also, sometimes you may just want to flunge at someone with your dorks, and Garna works for that too."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"A Note on Dockside Extortionist"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"This section is here, and notably before I get into individual cards, because I know some of you will read the card choices and then mash into your keyboard “BUT WHY NOT DOCKSIDE EXTORTIONIST?” before reading the rest of the guide. Congratulations, you got bumped up in the line."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"I’ve used Dockside Extortionist in this deck before. I could write a college dissertation on this card and why I loathe it. To save you from reading a couple thousand more words, I’ll leave it at this - Dockside is too good to the point of being unfun, at least from my perspective."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Without delving too deeply into my game philosophy, EDH is, by design, about diversity in choices, with a 100 card singleton deck rarely coughing up the same card twice unless you pack it with tutors to make it “consistent.” The “win” of EDH, since it’s not a competitive format and there’s no prizes on the line, comes from finding something fun to do every game."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Dockside Extortionist extorted the fun and diversity out of the deck. Most games would devolve to just tutoring for it and going infinite easily and about 80 percent of your deck being irrelevant. If your goal is solely to win with this deck, then slam the Extortionist in. I’ll leave you with this note though - the joy of playing with Garna comes from being adaptable. Your combos are multiple cards that are interweavable and interchangeable. Tutoring for a card that fits a situation is rewarding. Goldfishing the equivalent of “three card Splinter Twin” is boring. Just go play Legacy or something for Christ’s sake."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Card Choices"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"These cards are more so listed in order of importance of role rather than a basic “top ranked” list. As I’ve mentioned earlier, the key to this deck is being adaptable."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Sacrifice Outlets"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","bold":true},"insert":"Attrition, Phyrexian Altar, Altar of Dementia, Goblin Bombardment, Carrion Feeder, Dimir House Guard, Immersturm Predator, Priest of Forgotten Gods, Soldevi Adnate, Tymaret, the Murder King, Woe Strider"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Given a choice, I’d say the free sac outlets are the best, with Altar of Dementia being the best. As long as you can cast Garna with some consistency, Altar of Dementia just draws a ton of cards. Roughly a third of the deck is creatures (32 creatures), so even just casting Garna and milling yourself with the Altar is typically a card. Five mana draw a card isn’t exciting, but it’s repeatable and this is, of course, the bottom floor here."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Phyrexian Altar is more of a combo card but it also helps your Garna loop come a little cheaper. If you’re pinched on mana, you can sacrifice your creatures for whatever dies triggers you get and cast Garna with the mana. Also, you go infinite with Sneak Attack and Garna, so that’s pretty neat."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Goblin Bombardment is typically your “I somehow have infinite sacs so I can kill the table now” but, at least in my most recent configurations, I haven’t gotten there yet. It’s again a cheap, free sac outlet that can snowball some damage and combine to take out some creatures. You’ve played sac decks before I assume - you know this card is good."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Carrion Feeder is cheap and free, both of which I like. It’s a bit awkward at one toughness (which I’ll bring up later) but it’s incredibly efficient. You can also save sac it to itself to save it from a Swords to Plowshares."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Dimir House Guard isn’t really here for the sac outlet but it’s, again, free and it’s stapled onto a pretty neat tutor. There’s a ton of useful four-drops in the deck and you can rebuy the House Guard off Garna to go again, although you can only transmute on your turn. Sneak Attack is the big one, as this often goes infinite, but Pitiless Plunderer and Purphoros, God of the Forge are key pieces too. Sometimes you want Solemn Simulacrum as a consistent source of ramp, sometimes it’s Skyfire Phoenix for a free sacrifice. It’s a flexible but constrained tutor that doubles as a sac outlet, which is perfect."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Immersturm Predator is a new addition (obviously) and I haven’t been able to test it a lot, but my hunch is that it’s good. I usually recommend most normal decks (ie. decks that don’t actively aim to mill your opponents) need two pieces of graveyard hate. Slamming a Soul-Guide Lantern seemed a bit out of place, but this does a good job of sniping some key cards from graveyards. Also, it’s a Falkenrath Aristocrat that doesn’t have one toughness (this “one toughness sucks'' tease is building up) and it’ll survive a lot of boardwipes. If it sucks, let me know."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"I mentioned the Priest and Adnate earlier on. Priest of Forgotten Gods has proven itself in Standard and Historic a plethora of times. Just read the card - it does so much! It sacrifices two creatures. It gives you two mana. It makes your opponents lose life. It makes them sacrifice a creature. All this is off a single activated ability of a card with the same mana value as Storm Crow (and it doesn’t even fly). With Garna, the Priest can set around, tired as all hell from summoning sickness, but get some motivational help with Garna to suddenly sacrifice some dumbos at instant speed."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Soldevi Adnate, on the other hand, is a card that I’ve solemnly seen played. In fact, I think the only other person I’ve seen cast this card is my friend Sean, who used it to great effect with Hogaak. If you read the card, it’s actually pretty insane. On its surface, you can play this on two, play like a Woe Strider on three, and potentially rocket to seven mana on turn four. The common play here though is to make your Garna close to “free” by sacrificing her for five black mana to mess around with. You can also do some pretty cool infinite mana combos with this but that’s more of a bonus."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Tymaret, the Murder King can be a bit clunky, as a two mana sacrifice outlet isn’t what you typically want when you’re slamming a five-drop almost every turn, but he’s resilient as all hell. He can hide in your graveyard as a sac outlet or he can get some freebie damage on the battlefield. He also does a decent, albeit lackluster impression of a Squee or Reassembling Skeleton, but combining two Great Value-brand quality abilities actually makes this card pretty good."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Eat your heart out Viscera Seer, I’m on the Woe Strider train here. Again, one toughness knocks Viscera Seer off the list (the reason why is coming up soon, I promise), but I like that Woe Strider comes with a body and can be dug out of the graveyard from its own bootstraps."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Attrition’s usually solid but it does have awkward, black creature-skewed games where it’s a dud. Worse comes to worse though, you have a few red creatures in your deck which you can target to make Attrition just a bad sac outlet. If you it looks dead against the field though, throw this away to Harnfel or Faithless Looting."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Heartless Summoning"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"This card gets a section all its own and it steers a lot of the card choices in the deck. Heartless Summoning is spectacular and turns some engines from clunky into dangerous."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"As I’ve mentioned time and time again, not a lot in this deck has one toughness, and if it does it basically is irrelevant if it dies. This means every creature comes with a two mana discount and, since this deck really doesn’t push the offensive, the -1/-1 is null."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Three mana Garna is a much different beast than five mana Garna. All of the sudden, Soldevi Adnate makes Garna into a ritual. Hell, sacrificing the Adnate with Garna’s trigger on the stack means you’re paying RBBB for BBBBB. That’s a loop that nets mana, which is only limited by the red mana (which can be made with Birgi or Pitiless Plunderer)."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Outside of that loop, Heartless Summoning is like a Sol Ring for each finger and each toe. When you’re constantly casting creatures, as this deck tends to do, the discount adds up."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Sneak Attack"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Just like Heartless Summoning, this card is such a house that it deserves its own section."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"This isn’t a regular Sneak Attack deck. You’re not cheating Eldrazi or Blightsteel Colossus into play to obnoxiously kill people. Sneak Attack is basically the world’s best ramp spell, Vedalken Orrery and Cavern of Souls wrapped into one nice, four-mana package."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Since Garna likes to operate at instant speed, Sneak Attack lets you “flash” in creatures with an activation and for the low cost of a single red mana. This includes Garna, and then you can sac whatever you sneak in to get it back."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"With Phyrexian Altar or Pitiless Plunderer and another free sac outlet, you have infinite ETBs and dies triggers, so Grey Merchant or Kokusho just kill the table. Just sneak something in, sac it for a red mana, then sneak in Garna and sac her for a red mana to get everything back. Even without the combo, the amount of value you get by all your creatures costing one is insane enough that you can crush the table under your value girth."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Payoffs"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","bold":true},"insert":"Birgi, God of Storytelling, Flamekin Herald, Grim Haruspex, Midnight Reaper, Liliana’s Standard Bearer, Pawn of Ulamog, Pitiless Plunderer, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Skullclamp"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"There’s a bit of a thin line between “payoffs” and “gamewinners.” This deck is a “snowball deck,” meaning that it gets its wins from accruing constant advantage that rolls into a combo or an avalanche that can’t be stopped."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Birgi’s another new inclusion but she’s already put in some work. I think the deck is a bit skewed towards the Horn side, but Birgi herself is nothing to scoff at."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"As previously stated, Birgi can help net that much-needed red mana for Soldevi Adnate. In general, red mana isn’t as useful as black mana, as the deck’s about two-thirds black pips, but she’s a bit like a bad Heartless Summoning if you’re able to use the mana consistently. The “double boast” ability, as always, is perpetually useless. I can’t even think of a single boast creature this deck would want. Hell, you don’t even attack most games."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"The Horn is just a great piece of card advantage though. On its own, you can turn your dud draws into another two cards. If you have five mana to cast the Horn, most of your deck is castable anyway so you shouldn’t worry too much about hitting a glut of expensive spells. As I mentioned earlier, ditching creatures to the Horn to buy them back with Garna is pretty awesome."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Flamekin Herald has proven itself in this deck. Most of your key cards are under four mana and you’ll be casting Garna a lot. This little Elemental usually gets 10 or more mana worth of spells for free in just a turn or two, and it can be rebought with Garna if an opponent tries to remove it."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"If the cascade rules weren’t changed then you could cast the Horn half of Birgi with the cascade and Valki, God of Lies or even Living End might be considerations. However, not much changed with that rule being fixed. However, the rule still allows you to cast the adventure half of cards (as long as they’re not more than the cascading card’s mana value) so you can hit a Murderous Rider off Garna and spike a planeswalker."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper are basically the same and if you’ve played an aristocrats deck before, you’ve probably run into at least one of these. Midnight Reaper is a tad bit worse, since the life loss does add up, but notably it nets a card off itself when it dies. There are definitely spots where your board is basically a Reaper and a sac outlet and you can net two cards a Garna loop rather than one."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Liliana’s Standard Bearer is awesome. It has one toughness but who really cares. It was born to die. Like Garna, it has flash and it counts itself with its trigger. This card usually draws three cards per trigger. It’s cheap and it makes an insane amount of card advantage with Garna. I’ll go more into sequencing later but you’ll need to put this in play with Garna’s trigger on the stack, sac Garna, then sac it for the maximum value. Also remember that it counts everything that died in a turn, so if you somehow are doing two Garna loops a turn, you’re getting effectively double the cards."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Pawn of Ulamong and Pitiless Plunderer almost do the same thing but the Plunderer is just a ton better. It’s like a $6 uncommon from a somewhat recent set (ie. not Rise of the Eldrazi or a Duel Deck when Battle for Zendikar came out) for a reason. You get a mana to store for a rainy day and you can go infinite with Sneak Attack and any free sac outlet. The fact it counts tokens as well isn’t terribly relevant but it goes stupidly well with the Pawn."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Pawn is a definite downgrade from the Plunderer, as it can get blanked by Heartless Summoning, but the colorless mana does occasionally matter and getting a colorless mana and a Treasure in conjunction with the Plunderer is amazing."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Purphoros does his work here, although this deck is more a “death of a thousand cuts” deck than a “chunk them for 20 a turn” deck. Purphoros is hard to get rid of, as he’s mostly just an enchantment and the damage adds up. He gets discounted off Heartless Summoning, can be brought back with Garna’s trigger if he somehow goes to the graveyard and he wins the game if you can infinite get creatures onto the battlefield."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Gray Merchant (or Gary, as I’ll call him from now on) and Kokusho are usually gamewinners but are always solid on their own. Life gain is a bit underrated in EDH. Sure, you have 40 life, but games can go long and getting ground down by chip damage is a real thing. Also, the common phrase “life is a resource” is valid, and EDH is a format where you want your resources to be consistently flowing. There’s a lot of games where I’ve snatched myself out of the claws of defeat by getting myself out of single digits to a healthier life total with these two clowns."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Skullclamp is Skullclamp. It often carries you most games. You’ll leave some obvious tells on what you plan on doing with Garna with this but who cares? You’re drawing like ten cards off this."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Interaction"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","bold":true},"insert":"Big Game Hunter, Faerie Macabre, Fulminator Mage, Ingot Chewer, Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger, Massacre Girl, Meteor Golem, Murderous Rider, Blasphemous Act, Living Death, Toxic Deluge, Chaos Warp, Hagra Mauling, Kolaghan’s Command, Dictate of Erebos"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"“Interaction” I’m classifying as “anything that mucks up an opponent’s plan” so this ranges from removal to boardwipes to graveyard hate."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Good ol’ BG Hunter kicked Shriekmaw off the train for two reasons. First, Shirekmaw just sucks a lot of the time. Terror is a huge step down from even a Doom Blade and there were so many games where Shriekmaw was a brick in my hand. Second, I found a foil randomly and it’s sweet."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"On its own merits, the Hunter can hit a lot of creatures in the format while being cheap on its own. You also have a fair amount of discard outlets, from Horn of Harnfel to Tortured Existence to even Faithless Looting. Giving this card effectively flash with an instant speed discard outlet and casting it for cheap makes getting value out of a Garna loop a lot easier. Suddenly, you’re tacking an extra mana into your loop for often a free card or two and a removal spell. Ravenous Chupacabra can also be worth a slot here if you’re looking for another option."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Faerie Macabre isn’t mass graveyard removal, but it adds free value to Garna and it’s hard to interact with. Opponents will play around an obvious piece of graveyard hate like Soul-Guide Lantern, but Faerie Macabre isn’t obvious and it can’t even be countered easily."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Fulminator Mage is mostly to snipe Gaea’s Cradles and other annoying lands, but if you’re particularly spiteful, you can just keep Wastelanding an opponent until the game goes from PG-rated to a straight-up R. The mana cost is a bit high at times and it does draw some ire so this is more of an out to land-based decks or some of the more absurd lands in the format."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Ingot Chewer helps hose some artifact-based decks out of a game. You can even use it to pull the trigger on a Soul-Guide Lantern, Relic of Progenitus or Tormod’s Crypt. Just remember to stack the sacrifice trigger after the destroy trigger."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"On a side note, Embereth Shieldbreaker is worth a consideration here too. It’s a bit clunkier but it does get around Torpor Orb and Hushbringer if that’s a concern for your playgroup."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Ever since Burglar Rots, a consistent source of discard has been an option in EDH. Kroxa has finally beefed up that option and provides some minor-but-consistent discard and damage. Escaping this a valid play as well."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Massacre Girl has continually been one of the best performing cards in recent memory and one of my favorite EDH cards of all time. It’s hard to overstate how much this girl does."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"For starters, she’s often a boardwipe on her own with very little work. She won’t kill the board if there’s one or two big creatures (well, she can, but that’s for later) but often times you want to wrath to get rid of a lot of creatures. It’s not hard for a bunch of tokens to slowly snowball into a -15/-15 for all creatures"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"In this deck in particular though, Massacre Girl can do a bunch of extra work. Notably, her ability is a persistent effect throughout the turn. If you sacrifice creatures later on, you get to add a Nausea to everything on board. I’ve used this to my advantage plenty of times to take down larger creatures or get past a certain threshold. For a real life example, a friend of mine had a lot of large Monk tokens from Moanstery Mentor, beefed up with prowess and other buffs. There was nothing with one toughness on board, so I got Massacre Girl down and started throwing down creatures into sac outlets. Eventually, this got to a critical mass and a chain reaction took the whole board down. Then I got to sac the Girl and keep her in hand for another day."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"She gets around indestructible and she’s often just a consistently available boardwipe. Never underestimate her."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Meteor Golem is never perfect but this does give you an out to Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void. It also has the flexibility of just hitting anything as well."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"However, this seems like a good time for a short note on Feed the Swarm. It sucks. Stop playing bad cards as your “out” to certain matchups. You just need to accept that your deck has weaknesses. This deck eats it hard to Rest in Peace, that’s just a fact. Meteor Golem offers the same “out” without being too embarrassing on its own and, as a creature, has synergy with Garna. I play Feed the Swarm in my Phage deck, which has less than 10 creatures and is heavily focused on Torpor Orb, but otherwise I’d rather just play Meteor Golem."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Murderous Rider is a bit like another Big Game Hunter but with some more flexibility. Getting some reach on planeswalkers is nice since the deck basically doesn’t attack and you don’t get hosed by Torpor Orb. Notably, you can sacrifice the creature half and, with the library-bottoming ability on the stack, flash in Garna to fish it out - nifty."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Blasphemous Act, Toxic Deluge and Living Death are all just boardwipes. Most every EDH deck needs some and I don’t want to rely on Massacre Girl solely as mass removal."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"B-Act and Deluge are unexciting but efficient. Sorry, nothing spicy here. Play Damnation or whatever you feel like if you want."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Living Death is something that we’ve all played with at some point and it fluxes between a boardwipe to a mass reanimation spell to somewhere in between. As a sac deck, you can leverage this the most of course, but do be aware of your opponents’ graveyards."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Two notes on Living Death before moving on:"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"This deck’s graveyard hate is a bit small without Soul-Guide Lantern or Leyline of the Void. You may have to leverage using Faerie Macabre a couple of times to assure you don’t just lose on the spot."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Living Death and Xiahou Dun do provide a cool loop. You can sac Xiahou Dun, get a card, Living Death, then keep saccing him to get back the Living Death. With Phyrexian Altar or Pitiless Plundere and enough creatures, you can even go infinite."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Chaos Warp is like Feed the Swarm but not terrible. It hits anything, it’s instant speed and it’s a fun card to resolve. It gives you outs to Rest in Peace and Leyline without being actively detrimental and it’s flexible. Plus it’s still fun to hit the best thing on board and somehow flip into something worse. That’s divine providence for you."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Hagra Mauling, and MDFCs in general, are amazing. Play them wherever you can. It’s a land that can also deal with the most important card on board at times. I don’t think this needs further explanation."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Kolaghan’s Command may seem a bit small for EDH and it doesn’t synergize as as well as a creature-based kill spell or piece of artifact removal, but I like the flexibility and being on an instant means you’re not dead to Torpor Orb. An instant speed Gravedigger effect shouldn’t be underestimated either killing a small creature and a good artifact is a prime example of a two-for-one you should be looking for."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Dictate of Erebos is notably the only mass edict effect in the deck. I’ve grown more into the Eric Levine camp of edicts being bad for games. They often just make creature decks unplayable and make all the spellslinger decks laugh as you do their work for them. Having one is fine, and I chose Dictate over Grave Pact because I had a foil Dictate. The mana requirements are better too and flash is nice if you wanted a better reason though."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Aristocrats Fodder"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","bold":true},"insert":"Squee, the Immortal, Squee, Goblin Nabob, Reassembling Skeleton, Skyfire Phoenix"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Sometimes things don’t go as planned and you just have to play a very traditional aristocrats game. Having a few recursive bodies is a good backup plan."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Squee, the Immortal is the epitome of recursive. He’s double red, which is a bit intensive, but he can’t get hit with graveyard hate or most anything else outside of Drannith Magistrate. He’ll make sure you have something to sacrifice regardless of how much your graveyard is getting sent to the shadow realm."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Squee, Goblin Nabob works on a different axis of his more mature self, but he makes his own little engines. He turns cards like Faithless Looting and Tortured Existence into pure card advantage and he can always be played to the board and sacced if needed."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Reassembling Skeleton is a classic. It can notably be brought back at instant speed to keep your gun loaded if you need to edict something with Dictate or shoot something with Goblin Bombardment. Skeleton and Phyrexian Altar also basically give you a one-mana way to trigger all your sacrifice stuff."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Skyfire Phoenix works well with the amount of times you’ll cast Garna in a game but sequencing can be tricky. Remember, if the Phoenix dies in the same turn that Garna triggers, you’ll be forced to return the Phoenix to hand since Garna doesn’t let you pick and choose."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Still, this can work both ways. Sometimes it’s inevitable that you’ll play Garna and the Phoenix might be stranded in your hand to an extent. If you have discard outlets, then you can make sure Garna bounces the Phoenix back to trigger those. If you want a dies trigger, you can let Garna’s trigger resolve, then sac the Phoenix afterwards. It’ll be in your graveyard until your next Garna cast, but you’ll be doing that a lot so who cares."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Ramp"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","bold":true},"insert":"Mana Rocks, Solemn Simulacrum"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"The mana rocks are unexciting as always. I can’t really justify the Cluestone and the Locket; I just like the flavor. I will caution that this deck is very color-intensive, so cutting the clunkier three mana rocks for Worn Powerstone or something else is pretty bad. If you have a ton of fast mana like Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond and Mana Crypt, go ahead. If you actually enjoy playing EDH like me, then don’t play them and save your wallet."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"I will give a spotlight to Solemn Simulacrum though, the poster child of EDH. Solemn’s always value, but the fact that it gives you something when it enters and dies makes it an amazing recursion piece for Garna."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Tutors"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","bold":true},"insert":"Demonic Tutor, Diabolic Intent, Gamble, Imperial Recruiter, Entomb"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Again, echoing some similar sentiments from Levine, tutors make EDH dull. What’s the point of playing 100 (almost) unique cards if you’re going to ignore most of them? Tutors were the main reason I cut Dockside Extortionist, as the tutors become less redundant copies of Dockside and more final puzzle pieces or silver bullets. It’s reasonable to say that Dockside can be in this deck and can be fun if you cut all the tutors, but that’s a huge gamble (no pun intended)."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Demonic Tutor and Diabolic Intent are near-identical here. You have enough cheap creatures that the Intent has next to no downside (if anything, it can be an upside)."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Gamble is always an interesting card. Be cautious though, since Garna sits in your hand a lot, there’s a chance you randomly pitch her and have to go through hoops to get her back. I’d suggest using this early and getting something that you don’t mind binning, often Squee, Goblin Nabob."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Imperial Recruiter is simply stellar in this deck. You have a pretty robust suite of options to get to fill whatever role you need. BG Hunter, Murderous Rider and Fulminator Mage are removal, Carrion Feeder, Dimir House Guard, Priest of Forgotten Gods and Tymaret are sac outlets and Gary, Pitiless Plunderer or Soldevi Adnate can help win the game. The fact that Imperial Recruiter can be replayed with Garna just makes it one of the best cards in the deck."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"This is a graveyard deck so Entomb is an auto-include. Garna does make Entomb incredibly flexible though since she can get back any creature card you choose. Additionally, Entomb is an instant, you can easily flash in Garna, cast Entomb, get a combo piece or some other silver bullet and get something important without telegraphing yourself as the threat."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Recursion"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","bold":true},"insert":"Tortured Existence, Phyrexian Reclamation, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"I didn’t put a ton of recursion effects in this deck since Garna does most of the heavy lifting, but sometimes you don’t have access to Garna or need to lose a creature early in the game that you want to bring back later."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Tortured Existence is great. If you’ve never played with it before, I suggest playing it in all your black creature-based decks. It’s incredibly cheap at one mana with a one mana activation and it turns any dud creatures into Raise Deads at instant speed."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"The real insanity with TorEx comes with Garna. You can “juggle” creatures with TorEx and get them all back with Garna. Say you have five creatures in your graveyard that were sacrificed many turns ago and you’re just now casting Garna. You can pitch a creature in your hand to TorEx, get a different one, then just pitch the new creature you got back for another one. Keep doing this until you’ve discarded every card you want at some point and Garna gets them all back. You could also just regularly discard three creature cards for three others and get to keep all six."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Phyrexian Reclamation is a bit standard but it’s still good. It’s cheap and it actually creates card advantage on its own, unlike TorEx."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Xiahou has a unique effect but honestly, at around $90+, I’d understand if you cut him. I snagged one years ago on the cheap for around $40 but diamond-handed investors are suffocating any hope at oddities like this. Still, he can buy back any black card, even your enchantments, boardwipes and tutors, so he can do something no other card really can. A cheaper option might by Salvager of Ruin, which offers some protection for your noncreature permanents that can be rebought with Garna."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Lands"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"The lands are pretty basic although I play an admittedly greedy mana base because I like using all the cool dual lands they come out with."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Don’t play Cabal Coffers. It’s a trick outside of mono-black decks or decks that are incredibly skewed towards playing basic Swamps. Even with five dual lands with land typing in BR, it’s still just too high of a risk. This deck is mana-hungry and needs every land drop to count and playing the equivalent of a Temple of the False God in this deck is just awful."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"I won’t go over the fixing lands but I’ll go over a few standouts."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Cavern is sadly a necessity in this deck as Garna is the engine of the deck. Against counterspells, you don’t want to be in an awkward position with Garna. You’ll name Human just about every time. Even if you think that a non-Human creature that’s not Garna is key to winning the game (for some reason), you can just dig back anything that’s regularly countered with Garna anyway."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Phyrexian Tower and High Market are nice little insurances to your sac strategy. They’re not the most impactful but it means you can continually trigger your sac effects without taking up a land slot."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Path of Ancestry is a nice little bonus since you’ll be casting Garna a lot. There’s 10 creatures that share a type with Garna as well with the bonus is real."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Reliquary Tower helps keep your snowball from melting. It feels a bit strange to get five cards off Garna only to discard half of them to hand size, so infinite hand size is a real boon here."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Sanctum of Eternity is underrated in general and criminally cheap at the sub-$2 mark. This gives you some insurance against not having a sac outlet but still needing Garna. If your opponent stifles your trigger on Garna, you can just bounce her back to your hand. It’s a bit of a corner case but I’ve found the upside of having this base covered has outweighed the downside of a colorless land."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Malakir Rebirth is more of a land than Hagra Mauling. My general philosophy on MDFCs is that if they would be something that would be a normal spell in your deck (like a boardwipe, removal spell or Regrowth effect), they can take up that slot and give you bonus land drops. If they’re minor effects (like this) that wouldn’t be in a regular EDH deck, they can take up a land slot."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Rebirth lets you double-up on a specific dies or ETB trigger, which can be really nice. Sometimes you’re just sniping two lands with Fulminator Mage, sometimes you’re draining the board for 10 and gaining 30 (well, 28 from the two life loss) off Kokusho."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"That just about does it for most of the cards, except Faithless Looting but that card’s great and you shouldn’t need me to help you with that. Let’s get into some strategy."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Other Card Options"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"There have been some cards I’ve played and some I’ve considered which are worth mentioning and what my reasoning on them is. Dockside was already discussed, but there are a few others you may be thinking are worth an include"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Dredgers"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","bold":true},"insert":"Golgari Thug, Stinkweed Imp"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"The issue with the dredge cards is that they can be hard to set up in your graveyard and set up triggering them at opportune times. As I’ve said, Garna’s strength comes in part from her flash, and it can be hard to set up an end-of-turn dredge. You need to either randomly mill one, with the only mill in the deck being Altar of Dementia, discard one or play it out and sac it. This just feels like a lot of setup for a Shrodinger’s Cat-esque card advantage engine."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Altar of Dementia, for comparison, has very low cost to it. You play it, it sits there and it accrues value while providing an outlet to trigger the rest of the deck. It’ll probably mill a lot more on an average game than a Stinkweed Imp. I don’t want to either dredge on my draw phase and have to Garna on my turn or have either Grim Haruspex or Midnight Reaper to dredge at instant speed. It’s clunky and it just hasn’t worked will in practice. If the deck moves more towards discarding or self-mill even more (perhaps Anje Falkenrath or similar looters can come in) then these could be worth more of a consideration."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","bold":true},"insert":"Mindslicer, Sadistic Hypnotist"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"This was more of a “gentleman’s agreement” choice. Mass discard can be a feelbad for the table and game’s are more fun when you’re navigating through your opponents’ choices rather than just stripping them of all fun and sitting there diddling yourself. Mindslicer can be stacked to work how you want (sac it with Garna’s trigger on the stack to get back all your creature cards) which is nice though."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"One thing I don’t like about Hypnotist is the sorcery speed restriction though. Again, forcing you to play on your own turn takes some wind out of Garna’s sail and you also can’t sac Garna with her trigger on the stack with it."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"In the end, Kroxa fit the “attacking hands” slot fine without being too oppressive."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Priest of Urabrask, Priest of Gix"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Both of these were in early iterations of the deck but are just obsolete now. The deck’s shifted more from a pure combo-oriented deck to a value deck with a combo finish. On their own, these cards usually do little to nothing and you often require a Heartless Summoning or Phyrexian Altar to actually go net positive with them."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Mikeaus, the Unhallowed, Triskelion"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Sorry, I was just dozing off over here. If I wanted to win with a two-card combo then I’ll go play an actual format. Pass."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Also, two six-mana cards in this deck? Yeah, no."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Bontu’s Monument, Hazoret’s Monument"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"I’ll immediately disqualify Bontu’s Monument since I rarely see people playing this in even a mono-black creature deck where it ramps for all your creatures. It’s low impact and less flexible than a mono rock and the drain, while potentially a way to win if you go infinite, just isn’t worth it. If you’re going infinite, you’re able to win in a multitude of ways."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Hazoret’s Monument has actually come and gone in the deck quite a bit. There’s definitely less creatures it ramps but it can create some great card advantage with Garna. Still, it’s a bit clunky and costly so it hasn’t reappeared yet."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"I’ve seen some suggestions for the Familiars (Nightscape and Thunderscape) but again, they’re just pretty lackluster and do very little on their own. I’d rather have the out of winning a long game through attrition than throwing away slots for a convoluted combo."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent","color":"#434343"},"insert":"Aetherflux Reservoir"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"The life gain is nice but this is just inefficient for how little it does. This isn’t a storm deck and most of your wins are through Sneak Attack rather than some weird Soldevi Adnate combo. I don’t even play this card in my actual storm deck, for reference."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Strategy and Sequencing"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"If I had to summarize how the deck plays, I’d describe it as “nonlinear aristocrats.” This means that you’re constantly swapping what value you need off Garna and building towards a comb or a bigger loop that’ll end the game."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Early in the game, you just want to get your engines online. This means a sac outlet often and something to make Garna worthwhile. Tutors should be used mostly for a sac outlet if you’re missing one (with Altar of Dementia doing the most work on its own) and otherwise can be used for situation-specific cards. For example, if your opponent is playing an artifact-based deck and they’re pulling ahead, get Ingot Chewer. If they’re playing a lands deck, get Fulminator Mage. If they’re playing a creature deck, get Massacre Girl or Big Game Hunter. Card draw pieces are good if not much is happening as well, with Grim Haruspex being the best if you can sacrifice multiple creatures and Liliana’s Standard Bearer being optimal if you’re usually just playing Garna onto an empty board."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Diving straight towards a combo with a card like Sneak Attack may seem tempting but the combos often come to you. Slamming a Sneak Attack early into a Krosan Grip is just the worst, or even a Disnechant effect you can interact with means you’re just getting some middling value without a win. Once you get a Garna loop going, you’ll be drawing enough cards and getting enough value that a win condition isn’t the most important thing."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Graveyard hate is a huge dent in your plan so try to be smart around it. Keep your creatures out of your graveyard unless you can Garna at instant speed to get them back. "},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Remember: Grafdigger’s Cage and Kunoros do nothing against you so feel free to point and laugh at them. You’re playing a “fair” game from your hand, not cheating creatures into play from elsewhere often."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Rest in Peace and Leyline are rough, but you at least have some ETB creatures that still affect the board and odds are someone else at the table isn’t thrilled with it either. I would sandbag Chaos Warp and Meteor Golem if possible so you have an answer to these three."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Activated graveyard hate, like Soul-Guide Lantern or Tormod’s Crypt, aren’t too bad to play around. Since your creatures are constantly floating between your battlefield, graveyard and hand, it’s hard for them to hit all your important cards at once. As I talked about earlier, feel free to throw artifact removal at them to pull the trigger if you’re going to go off."},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Sequencing is tricky with this deck as a lot of its power comes from responding to your own triggers and fiddling with the stack. Some general heuristics are:"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Try to get Garna’s trigger on the stack first before sacrificing anything. You don’t want to sacrifice your board, only to have Garna get countered. If some type of counter for Garna seems obvious, I wouldn’t even try getting a loop off with Phyrexian Altar or Pitiless Plunderer helping pay her cost. Your opponents may also try to “strand” Garna on the battlefield by killing your sac outlet, so try to play around that as well."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Let sac triggers resolve one at a time, don’t throw everything away. This plays around Kadena’s Silencer effects and puts the ball in your opponents’ courts to leverage how much value you get before they try to “blow you out.”"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Sac Garna first. If someone wants to try to hit you with graveyard hate to snipe Garna out of the graveyard, you can still sacrifice everything after that resolves and Garna’s trigger is still on the stack."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"I’ve talked about this a lot but operate at instant speed when possible. Your turns should consist of setting up a loop for Garna to get back, then Garna on your opponents’ turns."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Further on this note, you don’t always have to Garna at the end of the last opponent’s end step. If everyone’s tapped out or there’s a situation where people are hard-pressed to interact with you, squeeze Garna in there. No one’s going to want to waste resources on your loop if they’re stopping something scarier going on."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Chump blocking to save damage then using Garna is just as valid a play here as it is in Limited. Garna counts everything for that entire turn, so just keep a good track of everything that’s happened that turn and get the most value."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"background":"transparent"},"insert":"Well, this was a long guide but it’s thorough at least. Feel free to ask me any questions on this deck - I love it and it’s been a blast to brew and play."},{"insert":"\n\n\n"}]}